When royalty meets for battle

by Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt Sailing News
A one design class brings people together for a shared experience, with membership creating a community of like-minded sailors. While the Class Champions are admired, what happens when you take them out of their village? That question gets annually asked at the US Sailing Championship of Champions when the kings and queens face-off in the same boat.

I was runner-up at the 1984 Flying Scot Class Championship, and was recruited to crew in 1987 when it used that boat. We would have won if not for my blunder, losing our lead to Paul Forester in the final race. In 1988, I was the Snipe National Champion and the event was in Snipes. My advantage evaporated when a “former friend” claimed I didn’t cross cleanly on port tack in a no-discard, no alternative penalty format. Ed Adams won.

I finally got it together as Lido 14 Champion, a tubby double-hander in which its fastest point of sail is tacking. The 1990 Championship of Champions was in the new (and now extinct) Hobie 18-SX, so pretty much the opposite of my expertise. However, we conquered the catamaran champs on Lake Tahoe, CA. Go figure!

Matt Reynolds was my crew that year, and we’re rekindling the magic – 36 years later – as I crew for him at the 2026 Championship of Champions on September 17-20 in Syracuse, IN. Twenty teams are racing E-Scows, and since Matt is coming in as the Windsurfer LT National Champion, it’s pretty much unlike his (and my) skill-set. Thankfully we also have some scow experts. Stranger things have happened… standing by.